MISSION STATEMENT
"SHOW UP ON 10"
Show up on 10. This is my mission statement.
I'll admit I stole this phrase from a leadership summit I attended my freshman year of college, although I wish I'd come up with it myself. However, this phrase embodies the leader I strive to be everyday.
The speaker at the conference posed the question, "What does it look like to show up on 10?"
This question has stuck with me for years, and has pushed me to uphold a personal standard that stands out from the crowd. Showing up on 10 is an attitude and a mentality to bring your best. The lie of mediocrity tells us to do the bare minimum. It tells us to do what everyone else does. It tells us to operate on cruise control. It tells us to show up on 5.
This doesn't make sense to me. I am not a 5 and I refuse to show up on 5.
Growing up, my mom used to evaluate the completion of my chores around the house. She would ask me all the time, "Did you do the job of a maximizer or a minimizer?" My mother did not accept sloppy work. I can hear her voice in the back of my head when I did a lazy job. She'd say, "Sydney, this is the job of a minimizer, try it again." She taught me to have an eye for detail and go the extra mile.
In 1st grade, my teacher told my parents that I wasn't doing my school work as fast as my classmates. She was concerned that I had poor time management skills. When my parents confronted me about it and asked me to move faster, I looked them dead in the eye and said, "I don't do shoddy work." I was seven years old.
Here's the deal. I knew my first grade teacher would hang all of our artwork in the hallway for the whole school to see. I wanted people to see my art on the wall beside all of my classmates and say, "Whoa, who did that one?"
A lot of things have changed since 1st grade, but that hasn't. I still refuse to do shoddy work. I refuse to turn in work with my name attached that is anything other than my best. I need people to know that I do the job of a maximizer.
This mission of mine has also kept me in check. I am frequently asking myself, "Am I on 10 right now?" Sometimes I catch myself slip up, or I arrive somewhere and I know I'm not on 10, that I didn't bring my very best. Those are the days I have to be brutally honest with myself. I have to look myself in the eye and say, "Sydney Finch, you are not a 5, why did you come on 5 today?" And in those moments, I've got to do whatever it takes to get on 10 because I don't show up as anything less than that.
I refuse to coast on auto pilot. I want to be remembered as the person who goes the extra mile; the person who sets the bar above everyone else. I want people to know if I am asked to do something, I am going to bring nothing but my "A" game. This is an attitude and a mindset that I am constantly coaching in myself because I insist on showing up on 10.